Opening Scene
by The Jade Winglet
Summary: Lights! Dragons! Action? When Queen Ebony of the SkyWings invites the Jade Mountain Academy students and teachers to see a private play, nothing could go wrong, right? Wrong. When Ebony drops dead during the play, it is up to the Jade Winglet to figure out; how it happened, why it happened, and most importantly, who exactly killed her? Cover art drawn by squad member Howl.
1. Prologue

**Author's Note- Hello, good dragons of the world! Jade Winglet here, and we got something in store. A fanfiction! Yay!**

 **Now, before we start telling a tale of thrills and betrayal, we'll have to state a few things:**

 **This fanfiction takes place 3,000 years after the events of DoD. So, OCS are involved.**

 **And, NightWings regained their old kingdom, thanks to a kind animus restoring their old kingdom to be habitable.**

 **So, enjoy!**

* * *

 **-Prologue-**

 _Dear Principal Shrimp,_

 _It is an honour for me to announce that Jade Mountain Academy will have an opportunity to be able to travel to the Scorpion Den to watch a play put on by a group of young actors and actresses. I, of course, have the honours of being there myself._

 _I hope that you will be able to come to see the play! If not, then this will truly be such a missed opportunity._

 _Yours truly, Queen Ebony of the SkyWings -_

 **-{}-**

Shrimp sat at his desk in his office inside the great Jade Mountain Academy, reading over the letter sent by Queen Ebony of the SkyWings herself. It was a real shock, in all honesty. Getting sent a letter by a queen? He observed the words carefully, rereading it a few times. He couldn't really believe that the letter was even genuine.

He was quite confused, even amazed as one might say. However, he still knew that he was going to have to make a decision to respond to such a letter, none less one by Ebony herself.

He barely even had any connections with his own tribes queen, so getting an invitation from _another_ tribe's queen was practically mind blowing.

He got up from his desk, his tail flicking anxiously. He read the words on the letter one last time before putting it down. He had to really assure himself that a queen, of all dragons, would have invited his academy to a _private_ showcase, with her also there. He didn't know if he could turn down such an offer. _Why_ exactly she had invited Jade Mountain Academy, he did not know. He felt like turning down such an honor would be a waste, as well as disrespectful. He looked at the pool in his office, staring at his reflection. He saw himself with a confused face. He folded his talons over and over and thought to himself in an observing way, _I should say yes. I should let my academy go to such an honouring thing. But am I ready to?_ How _could I say no? Well.. I guess if I cannot say no.. I have to say yes._

The SeaWing snapped up from staring at himself in the pool. He grabbed the letter and rolled it up neatly. A new rush of confidence ushered him to alert the staff first; maybe their opinions will make him definitely not regret his decision, he only hoped. He knew that getting advice from other dragons would help. He hurriedly bolted out of his office and down the hallway, before he could change his mind.

 **-{}-**

Students were jumbled in the front of the school, some patiently waiting for further instructions or for the principal to begin speaking, while some were still loudly talking with their clawmates. Shrimp just was watching over them, waiting for the moment of where he would break the news that they were seeing a private play, and that they were invited by the queen of the SkyWings, as shocking as it was.

Shrimp cleared his throat loudly, waiting anxiously for silence. When he knew all of his students had begun to quiet down, he started to speak:

"Students of Jade Mountain Academy, I have some news that I must tell you. Queen Ebony of the SkyWings herself has invited us to a private play. I have thought long about this invitation, and can confirm that we are going. It will be taking place at the Scorpion Den, so I hope you are all excited for this honouring surprise!"

Shrimp then went silent, waiting for reactions. It started with a few surprised whispers and mutters, and then he saw a few dragons starting to talk in small groups, which soon erupted into full chaos, either dragons now beginning to ask questions.

"When are we going?"

"How far is it?"

"How hot is it going to be? I might literally die if we are stuck in the middle of the desert."

"Can I bring my history scroll?"

Shrimp cleared his throat sharply for silence, but the dragons kept on talking. When the students did not listen, he called out,

"Students of Jade Mountain Academy! I wish for silence! Your questions will be answered soon. You are all dismissed. And I do NOT want chaos inside the mountain, so talk with you clawmates quietly!"

He watched as dragons quickly cleared away, dispersing into smaller groups and chattering in different tones to each other. Excited, nervous, anxious, jittery, and even angry that their questions had not been answered. He climbed down from the rock ledge and just watched the younger dragons. Once they had all left, he hurried over to the fellow staff, and they went into a small huddle, talking anxiously.

* * *

 **Author's Note- Hope you like it!**


	2. Chapter 1

**Author's Note- Hey, hey. The Jade Winglet here! Well, more of Reverie here, because I write these little notes. Anyways~ The chapters will go in the order of the Jade Winglet, so there will be seven P. in total in this fanfiction, (if you don't count Shrimp's short P.O.V), so it will keep things interesting.**

 **Important to note, each P.O.V is one of the Jade Winglet's OCs. So, this one is mine! Reverie, yay!**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **-Chapter One-**

 **-Pink Sand's POV-**

She was excited, well 'excited' didn't really define her emotions. It was more of 'I-am-going-to-squeal' excited. This was the perfect event to bond with her clawmates. Her clawmates really didn't have the time or really just didn't care to talk to her. But, she was fine about that, the only issue is that she wanted to interact with the dragons she will probably spend months with; studying, having fun, cracking jokes. Pink-Sand almost dreamed about the day where every dragon will be buddy-buddy.

The pale magenta SeaWing couldn't hold still in her seat, she bounced on her soft bear fur mat. Each dragon had their own little slice of carpet made of animal pelts. The theater itself was space-ish, actually it was entirely in the open. The sand dunes stretched for miles, but a shimmering oasis with tall palm trees surrounding it, was settled behind the stage, to make it seem humble and welcoming. The young dragons sat in rows, neatly in formation, under the protection of shady tents.

Queen Ebony, herself, sat in a gorgeous tower made out of sandstone and marble with long silks tapestries draping from the sides, depicting a group of dragons watching over five dragonets with the title 'Dragonets of Destiny' over them, the title of the show they were about to see.

Guards were firmly planted at each corner of the outdoor theater, and Pink-Sand wondered if Ebony had to pay the SandWing Queen to get a private show in this theater and the few SandWing guards scattered about along the SkyWing guards.

Groups of colorful dragons were all talking amongst themselves, winglet talking to winglet, and friends amongst friends. But, here was Pink-Sand, sitting by herself, jittering like an impatient dragonet. It was sweltering hot, but she didn't mind. Well, the IceWing next to her looked like she was about to have a heatstroke.

"You ok there?" Pink-Sand asked. The IceWing gasped for air, blue beads of sweat dripping down her diamond-like snout.

"You-u think?! I am practically going to melt!" The IceWing sighed heavily, her obsidian colored eyes squinted and she spoke like she was already accepting her death, "I think I am finally hallucinating!"

Pink-Sand's eyes widened, "How come? Uh, I don't think it's _that_ hot...I mean, we could ask-"

"You're PINK! SeaWings aren't pink. I am going to die. This is it. Good-bye cruel world!" The IceWing flopped over dramatically. Pink-Sand couldn't decide if she should be offended or concerned.

"I was hatched pale magenta. I am _magenta_. Which is a shade of purple- Ugh come on, I'll just get you to the oasis." Pink-Sand slid her talons under the IceWing and heaved the IceWing over her shoulders, luckily this IceWing was not really a challenge to pick up.

 _Poor IceWing...I guess the shade wasn't enough._

She started to dragged the IceWing towards the massive oasis, but as soon as she went away from their tent and exposed to direct sunlight, the IceWing shrieked.

"AH IT BURNS!" The IceWing snapped up and scurried away from Pink-Sand, the SeaWing rolled her eyes.

"Ok, dramatic much? Ugh. It's ok, friend. I guess you're fine?" Pink-Sand got back to her seat, and the IceWing weakly nodded.

"Let's talk about something else, maybe it'll distracted you from the heat? So, what's your name?" Pink-Sand asked, the IceWing cleaned away droplets of sweat.

"Mist. Which I'll probably become in a few minutes…" Mist trailed off, and she looked away towards the stage, actors and actresses were already gathering on the wooden stage. A giant tent hung over the stage and the dark red curtains were drawn back.

A burly, but withered male NightWing stept up in front of the company of actors, every dragon seemly silenced. The NightWing's presence was eerie and ominous; it made Pink-Sand shudder. He cleared his throat.

"My name is Crypticspeaker…. I am the current playwright of this company, and I have prepared a small speech before we start the play, it is for you wonderful specks in life." The NightWing spoke with a gravelly and almost dead voice.

"Tonight, my company," He glanced back at the group of dragons huddled together, wearing various jewelry and cloth accessories as costumes, "Will perform the symbols I had forged from my mental universe…."

"He means the play they are about to perform," Mist whispered to Pink-Sand, "Crypticspeaker does live by his name. Nobody understands his gibberish, most dragons have to be real fans of his works to understand his 'art'. Which luckily, you got me to translate." Mist grinned, Pink-Sand just nodded silently, maybe there was a friendship that could be kindled.

"Not only is it a tale spoke by the life givers, but a story, a ink splot in time, that every dragon knows. The flight of the Dragonets of Destiny. They lived with the destiny, the fate, within them. Even though, the bringer of destiny was a lie." Crypticspeaker started to pace around the stage, his scales were black as an endless abyss, only the dark silvery teardrop-scale near his eye was the only speckle of brightness on that dragon's scales.

"Morrowseer was nothing but a lie. And, so this play will extend from that lie, but with pure and utterly self-righteous truth." The NightWing threw his head up towards the audience, with a more than creepy smile on his face.

"So, without further interruptions. I present 'The Dragonets Of Destiny', a tale of history and lies." Crypticspeaker bowed and backed away from the audience, and the curtains closed for a brief moment. A moment passed and the curtains shot back open. Four actors stood in the middle of the stage with a dark and foreboding mountain set behind them.

A tall IceWing male wearing a medallion and three SandWings, the largest being female, standing away from him, and the IceWing had a wooden sculpture carved as an egg in his clutches. The female SandWing hissed, and broke away from the other SandWings. She (fakely) swiped the IceWing. The white dragon collapsed onto the floor, and the female SandWing went over him and put her talons over the IceWing's snout.

"Bind his mouth," The SandWing ordered the other two, as they quietly walked over to the IceWing, "Quickly!"

Pink-Sand couldn't contain her excitement, Mist groaned seeing one of her tribe members comically overpowered so easily. Pink-Sand didn't like fighting, but the moment when the IceWing actor started to struggle and fight back against the SandWing's grip was awesome to her.

"Too late IceWing!" The SandWing trumphially announced as the other two SandWings put a rope around the IceWing's snout, "You won't be using your ice-breath on us"

The SandWing grabbed the wooden egg, "Yes, this SkyWing egg is about to hatch."

"But, why would my sister send you to steal a SkyWing egg? Blaze hates new dragons prettier than her." The SandWing stopped, and did a fake evil smile, "Unless…"

"The Brightest Night is tomorr-"

A shrill scream echoed through the theatre. Guards started to burst in panic, dragons shrieked in terror, and Pink-Sand was caught in the chaos. She glanced around frantically; what was going on, and why were dragons running away for their lives? Pink-Sand started to run away herself, the whole theatre was in hysteria.

Pink-Sand's attention caught up to the looming tower. The tapestry that once depicted a powerful scene from the play was covered in crimson red blood. The crippled body of Queen Ebony dangled out of the viewing window. Her dark red scales were covered with blood, and a shiny metal dagger protruded out from her back. Guards circled the body of the Queen of the sky, struck with absolute terror and heartache. The guards were only left with confusion and even some guards roared with rage, disappointed that they couldn't protect their queen.

The magenta SeaWing stood there, watching a few guards break away from the body, and the rest solemnly plucking the body from the tower and gently descending towards the ground to set the Queen's body down. Pink-Sand's breath was unsteady. Had she just witnessed a murder? Thoughts swarmed her head like insects buzzing about in the rainforest. The shadows of the guards stretched across the sand as they rushed towards the panicked crowd. They tried to calm the crowd, but Pink-Sand stood in utter silence.

 _I-I just sa-w her die._

Pink-Sand couldn't wrap her head around what had just happened. The crowd was finally settling down, the staff members of the school were shepherding the students into tight groups, the guards stood by closely. The principal of the academy was getting literally shoved up in front of the crowd, the frightened SeaWing turned towards his students next to an orange SkyWing guard.

"If everyone could p-please just c-calm down!" the poor SeaWing called, his voice shaking, "Th-the crime will soon be solved! Please remain in y-your seats!"

The students started muttering, with a lot of worried voices. Pink-Sand saw the orange SkyWing push away Principal Shrimp, and stand forward, speaking a sad, but thunderous voice,

"I have to announce that, my quee- Queen Ebony of the SkyWings is confirmed to be….dead. And, we could not let any potential witnesses, or suspects leave the region-" The voices of the crowd got more louder and even more worried. The SkyWing growled, but kept on speaking,

"Now, I know you are all concerned. But, I am afraid to inform you, nobody can leave until we find who has murdered Queen Ebony."

Pink-Sand's wings dropped, and the students started to get louder, but the magenta SeaWing couldn't find the words to speak. Queen Ebony was dead.

* * *

 **Author's Note- *ominous music* Dun Dun Dun!**

 **(The play is literally the Dragonet Prophecy, lol)**


	3. Chapter 2

**Author's Note- Jade Winglet back again with the party tricks- Polar is owned by Eaz, one of the squad's members, so enjoy!**

 ***We don't own Wings Of Fire, only the OCs...***

* * *

 **-Chapter Two-**

 **-Polar's POV-**

Polar threw out her wings, _I really have to stay here. Because I was a_ WITNESS _? Three moons, this is stupid._ Her worry of touching other dragons faded away in the blink of an eye. She spread out her wings furiously, nearly touching a few dragons. She flapped her wings, forgetting completely how uncomfortable she was. She soared up into the sky, not too far up though. About seven tail-lengths. Her eyes shined with fury as a couple of guards tried to herd her down,

" _I'll freeze you to an ice statue if you touch me, maggots!_ " she hissed angrily, "Get away!"

Nonetheless, she slowly glided down, into her "mat", which was now just an ice sheet. She swished around her tail, _Are they assuming I did anything? This is so stupid. Idiotic little-_ but she was cut off from her thoughts as her gaze traveled to the body of Ebony again. She puffed out of her nostrils, sending out a bit of frostbreath. She dug her claws into her ice sheet, grinding at it angrily. She liked to take out things on nonliving figures. She fumed with anger and, even hidden under all of it, confusion. She looked around, seeing the reactions on some dragons faces. Angry, confused, and even excited. She snarled angrily, and snarkily said to a especially strangely excited RainWing next to her,

"You _idiot_! Do you even know what is happening? Get your mind straight, lazy RainWing!"

Polar only just managed to not lash out at the RainWing in fury of their stupidity. The RainWing had a semi-guilty face, and a semi-offended face,

"I'm not lazy!" they cried, jumping up a bit, "Calling dragons lazy is rude!"

"Oh, yes you are. If you were not LAZY, than maybe you would be more AWARE of the current situation!" Polar snarled, her face twisting in anger.

The RainWing sank down onto their mat, sticking out their tongue, and then focused their attention back to the SkyWing. The orange SkyWing WAS saying things, but she didn't care. She hardly listened, and the only few things she could snag were 'stay' and 'wait'. She huffed, sinking down, angry thoughts twisting in her head. She tried to push her questions to the back of her brain. She curled her claws deeper into the ice sheet, trying to cancel out all the mutters and whispers near her. She could tell the SkyWing was finishing up speaking, which of she did in fact listen to,

"So, therefor, you will have to stay here, until the crime is solved and figured out."

Polar sank deeper into her "mat". She saw guards repost their spots, but now a few were in the sky, making sure the younger dragons would not fly away. She got up again and stormed in circles, a few times nearly touching dragons rushing to their clawmates with her tail. She didn't know what to do with her anger. Attack a dragon? Idiocy at its finest. Tear up the place? She left it as an option. Try and fly away? Hah, no. None of these options seemed rather appealing to her. A little voice in her _was_ encouraging her to fly away, but she glued her wings to her body. She tapped her claw against her now torn up ice sheet. She looked at the orange SkyWing,

 _Moon-damned worm-brained maggot-minded idiotic little prick._ She thought, narrowing her eyes fiercely, she was getting sick of being still, she had to _move_. Polar curled her claws sharply, and scowled. She spread out her wings again and shot up, regardless of whether there was many guards above. She nearly slammed into one, but they zoomed away, not in time to not be hit in the leg, though.

Her wing was vigorously flapping, and it happened to brush past their leg. The pale yellow guard shrieked in pain, ice forming around their leg. About four other guards gazes locked onto the pale yellow SandWing guard, they hurried over, and as they did this Polar quickly backed up. The sun was still beating down, but she tried her best to ignore it. She refused, _refused_ to stay. She shot away, over dragons and guards. The guards had seen what had happened, and didn't try to chase after her. She spread her wings to catch a breeze, and managed to snag a brief one, pulling her forward. She looked back for a brief moment to see that now a few guards were after her. She knew, since they were more used to the heat and were older and faster, that they would easily catch up to her, _But, if they_ do _catch up to me, they cannot do anything._

She kept pushing herself forward, and she was almost high enough to see the whole theatre. She tilted her wings and made a sharp right turn. The guards were coming up close, the shimmer of bright red scales made her concerned.

 _For the love of three moons, stupid maggot-brained SkyWings are after me._

She whipped around and shot away from the theatre, the Scorpion Den's withering sandstone walls were coming up, but as soon she glanced back, a SkyWing rushed up to her, she almost yelped in surprise, but quickly turned it into a fierce growl. The red-yellow tipped SkyWing looked odd, Polar couldn't grasp onto what she was looking at, was this SkyWing on _fire_?!

"Halt, in the name of Queen Ebo- The Queen!" The SkyWing shouted, Polar only snorted out a puff of frostbreath from her nostrils, she had two choices; either to touch this SkyWing and kill him or keep flying hoping she could outrun the SkyWing. Option one really looked pleasing right now. So, she pointed her left wing up and slammed into the SkyWing. But, nothing happened, only a disappointing sizzle. Polar gawked in disbelief, she was actually appalled.

 _HOW IN THE THREE MOONS IS THIS DRAGON ALIVE!?_

"HOW ARE YOU ALIVE!" The two shouted in unison, both dragons stared at each other with shocked disbelief. The SkyWing narrowed his eyes and tackled Polar right into torso, both dragons were free-falling to the ground. The sandy death awaiting her was speeding towards her, but only the feeling of floating came, besides the harsh spike of pain she would of probably felt if she fell longer.

The SkyWing lifted her up by her right wing, Polar dangled like a helpless puffin caught by a skilled hunter, she didn't like this embarrassing feeling one bit. The SkyWing threw her onto the ground, knocking the wind out of her.

"Ok, how you're not up in flames?!" The SkyWing snarled, Polar heaved herself onto her side, lying sprawled out on the ground.

"How are you not a frozen piece of dragon right now?!" Polar snapped back, she was just as confused as the SkyWing was. The two stared at each other, the SkyWing slithered up to her and stood over her. Polar could feel heat radiating from the SkyWing's scales, like a forest fire rampaging through the woods.

"Well, sorry sweetheart," The SkyWing sneered, "Can't exactly let you go."

"Who you calling 'sweetheart'?" Polar growled, she felt a tightening grip, more SkyWings caught up to the young dragon guard, and a few SandWing guards followed.

"You're under arrest. Just tell your new friends at the dungeon, that Wildfire caught you." The SkyWing flicked his tongue, serpent-like. Polar groaned. A cold metal feeling wrapped around her wings, unlike fire-scales, she couldn't break away instantly.

 _It's only been one month since I got to the academy, and I am already under arrest?!_

"Be careful with this one, she got some sort of ice thing going on." Wildfire took the other guards, "It's a bit freaky, actually twice freaky in my opinion." Wildfire softly chuckled, Polar growled as the guards cautiously strap more metal bindings.

"What," Polar snapped, and Wildfire just shook his head, "You got another one liner pull out from that dumb brain of your's."

"No, just that we could touch each other." Wildfire prodded Polar, the other guards just stared awkwardly, "So, what's with the ice-scales? IceWings aren't normally, or even at all, hatched with them, and those colors-"

"It's a curse, you idiot. One of my parents screwed me, cheating with an animus," Polar growled under her breath, "How is a fire-scales SkyWing in the royal guardsman.."

"I am not exactly a 'natural hatched' fire-scales. It's a, uh….birth-defect...with my primary fire organs. I am more of a dragon who's fire was bottled up."

Polar narrowed her eyes, flicking her tail as the guards started to move her along back to the theatre, "Do you tell everyone that? Like some idiot."

Wildfire grinned, a smug maggot-eating grin, "At least my parents didn't screw me over."

Polar only hissed in response, as the other guards up-roared with laughter, this wasn't one of Polar's high points.

* * *

 **Author's Note- Today in Opening Scene, Polar abuses the word 'maggot'. - Reverie**


	4. Chapter 3

**Author's Note- Jade Winglet, back at it again with the white vans...*cough* I hope you enjoy this chapter. Berry is owned by Howl.**

 **We don't own Wings Of Fire, but we own the OCs.**

* * *

 **-Chapter Three-**

 **-Berry's POV-**

The RainWing prince had no idea what was going on.

Dragons were running around everywhere, yelling at each other for some reason or another. He craned his neck over the crowd of dragons, hoping to at least recognize _someone_ from Jade Mountain Academy. He just wanted to find his friends, to be assured that he would be safe in this madness…

He heard dragons screeching from above, fire sizzling in the air, almost as if there was a wildfire in the sky. His head shot up and he flared his wings. Were his friends in trouble? He wanted to keep his distance, just to be safe…

He was a rather… strategical RainWing. He preferred to see things from a distance before approaching the main problem, but if one of his friends was in danger…

He shot up into the air, sending sand billowing in small clouds underneath him. He could care less at the moment, for his only desire was to get a better view of the current chaotic situation.

 _There_! Was that… Polar? The IceWing from his winglet was lying on the ground, SkyWings and SandWings surrounding her. They slowly advanced on her while the IceWing just glared at them coldly.

He shot forward, nearly barreling into the guards, but he stopped himself at the last moment. Their attention grabbed by the nearby RainWing, the guards turned their heads to look at the prince. The SandWings had their tails poised up and ready to strike in case any dragon made a wrong move.

More specifically, Polar.

Or maybe even him, if he wasn't careful.

Berry cleared his throat before the guards could make any move. "What are you doing?" he asked, his gaze fixed cleanly on the guards that stood between him and his friend.

At least, Berry _considered_ Polar a friend. She wasn't the _nicest_ dragon, but Berry would still want to protect her. She still had a duty within this world.

She was still a part of his winglet.

A SkyWing guard advanced on him, snarling. "This dragon was the one that murdered Queen Ebony," he hissed, smoke rising from his fangs. "She belongs in jail!"

"She's under arrest!" a SandWing guard added, shooting a glare of disgust at Polar.

"I did nothing!" Polar growled.

"Where's your proof?" the SkyWing guard taunted.

Polar didn't speak after that. Berry wanted to remind the SkyWing guard that _he_ didn't have any proof of Polar murdering Queen Ebony either, but he had something else on his mind.

"Take her to court at least," whispered Berry, desperate to save at least _one_ of his friends. "Let us determine if she is guilty or not."

"You're in her little winglet, are you not?" a SandWing asked, raising his tail. "The only thing her group of friends will do will be to do is use biased information to get her out." He slammed his claw in the sand, sending the grains flying. Berry had to use his wings to shield him to prevent any loose grains from getting into his eyes.

Berry growled, uncovering himself from behind his wings. The prince was a very difficult dragon to convince.

"Please," he begged.

"Please," added another SkyWing. He looked very… different from the rest of the guards. Smoke rose from his scales, and golden veins glimmered in the sunlight, which were just visible beneath his scales. "I mean, not that I'm siding with anyone at the moment. It's just… it would be a better opportunity for all of us."

"Thank you, Wildfire," said one of the SkyWings. He then turned back to Berry, the cold glare back in his eyes. "Fine, then," he spat. "I'll give you your stupid court that you wanted. But you cannot get angry if your friend does not make it out."

 _Oh, she will_ , Berry thought, determined to prove to the dragons that Polar was not the murderer. Even behind all of that bitterness, Berry knew that Polar would never intentionally kill a dragon, much less the queen of the SkyWings herself.

 _But the real question is, who is the_ real _murderer?_

* * *

Dragons were lined up against the walls of the inside of a building. The building was located not too far from the SandWing palace, and it was used as the Kingdom of Sand's official courtroom. The walls were made out of a sturdy sandstone. The inside obviously looked like a normal courtroom.

At the far edge of the room, in the judge's seat, sat the SandWing queen herself, Queen Jasper.

Berry sighed. He was seated beside two other members of his winglet, Pink-Sand and Dragonfly, who was the MudWing of the Jade Winglet. He needed his friend to have a fair chance at this unfair fight. These dragons didn't have a single scratch of proof, so how could they just jail her unfairly without some sort of debate?

Queen Jasper pointed at a supposed witness to speak with one talon.

The SandWing cleared his throat, his eyes gleaming as he was speaking to his queen. "My queen… this dragon here has murdered Queen Ebony! She's not even a heir, nor was it a fair challenge!" He started pacing around. "Who will be the next SkyWing queen?"

"Enough," said Queen Jasper with a stern authority, "That is not my concern. This should have been solved by the princesses themselves-"

"It would had evolved into a war, though!" the SandWing protested, interrupting his queen, "Just like that war thousands of years ago involving SandWing princesses fighting for the throne!"

"I could care less about this situation. Besides, do you have any actual proof that she _did_ kill Ebony? Any marks that were the sign of IceWing breath? Claw marks in the shape of an IceWing?"

The SandWing shook his head. "But, my queen, there is another step of proof. It _was_ an IceWing- I know it was."

"But was it this particular IceWing?"

"I-" the SandWing sighed. "I don't actually know…"

"Besides," Polar snapped, standing up from where she was sitting. "If I _did_ kill Ebony, it would have left frost marks _all over_ her body. Case closed."

After Polar had spoken, dragons muttered amongst themselves.

"She _does_ have a point," Dragonfly pointed out. "Who are these SandWings to tell us that a dragon that _clearly_ can freeze things on touching and left _absolutely zero_ trace of frost on Queen Ebony that she was the murderer?"

"I know," whispered Berry.

"Order!" Queen Jasper commanded. The court went completely silent.

"If that is the case, then this IceWing is obviously animus-cursed, but innocent," she went on. "If you have any true problems with this supposed Queen murdering, then go to their kingdom instead." She slammed her talons on the table. "Case closed."

 _That quickly?_ Berry wondered in awe.

"B-but, my Queen, we can't have such deeds unjustify-" The SandWing's snout shut as soon as Queen Jasper shot an intimidating glare.

"Case. Closed. Do I have to make myself clear to you," Queen Jasper groaned, and pulled out a large scroll from under the regal judge's table, she opened it and examined it for a bit, and rolled it back up, "I want my fastest SandWing messengers to send this scroll, that explains the ordeal we are having about Queen Ebony's death, to the SkyWing princesses, and they'll deal with whatever it takes to put a queen on that throne. But, this scroll explains that I am in no way shape or form associated with her murder. I don't want a war on my talons, SandWings already have too much with the wars."

She handed the scroll over to two agile-looking SandWings, who both looked eager to get their mission underway. As soon as they finished bowing, they both bolted out of the courtroom.

Polar shifted in her seat. "Can I leave now?" she asked.

"How do we exactly know that you're-"

Queen Jasper snarled. "Leave. Let the princesses deal with this." She turned to Polar. "If you are found guilty, then you will be sentenced to prison for who knows how long. _Leave, everybody_."

* * *

Berry waited out of the courtroom, he leaned tightly on the wall, nervously fiddling with his medallion. The prince saw his expression on the shiny blue sapphire in the center, a worry-sickened RainWing was staring back at him. They haven't released Polar yet, it's been over thirty minutes. And, that wasn't the only thing he was worried about. His aunt was the queen of RainWings, and certainly she would've heard the tragic and sudden death of Queen Ebony.

 _She might as well ship me off back to the rainforest, and I have to go back on those boring diplomatic mission again….And, I only had been here a month….Aren't I lucky._

He frowned, his long tail curling up. Would Auntie Utopia seize him from his friends? She wouldn't. Would she? He ran through his thoughts once more. It was a possibility, she wasn't exactly a 'normal' RainWing queen; lazy and outgoing. She always would skip suntime, and was the most bravest dragon he knew. And, she was half NightWing.

Her royal blood only traced down from her RainWing side. And, a few hybrid queens had been scattered here and there through history since Darkstalker's reawakening, but most queens that were hybrids kept it as a well tight secret, only to been exposed when they were long dead. It was assumed only five queens had ever been hybrids. Utopia wasn't really the type to spill out such a secret, only Berry and his mother (a pure RainWing, because she is the half-sister of Utopia) and Utopia's children knew.

The hissing of ice snapped him out of his 'mini-trance' as he saw a very grumpy Polar walked out onto the sand, which instantly turned to solid slabs of ice. The constant hissing with every step she took, made him shiver, quite literally. Polar loudly growled, "I can't believe after the QUEEN OF SANDWING's decision, they STILL don't let me leave!"

Berry sheepishly shrunk down. Polar's outbursts were one thing he wasn't used to yet, but still, this was his clawmate and new friend. "At least they let you out. Was it that bad?"

"You're telling me. I got tackled by a fire-scales SkyWing, who somehow got into the royal guards," Polar's voice lowered, "If you ask me, I would've locked that freak up. And, the best part, the guards rumored that there was no dragon at all...Saying it was an animus. Like, how many animi are there? Five? I don't know, or care."

"But, your a fire-scales...of sorts…..and you live and learn perfectly fine. Why do they have to be locked up? Anyways, at least your not in chains, or worse, _killed_. I am happy you made it out, and it was so kind that Queen Jasper let you free!" He grinned, but Polar looked insulted.

"What, are you saying I'm a freak too?! 'Cause, you're taking that fire-freak's side!" Polar snapped. The sound of hissing grew louder, and Berry shook his head vigorously.

"No, no! I didn't mean it like that. It's just- nevermind… So… who do you think murdered Ebony? I feel like we are not going anywhere until they figure out whodunit."

"Well, it's not me! That's all I care about. I can't believe I'm saying this….but, I can't wait until we can go back to the academy…. Because I'm pretty mad that I didn't get to see their stupid play, and get accused of regicide!"

" _Well_ , I think it was a.. a... spooky SandWing… or maybe a MudWing? I have a feeling, I just know it. Maybe, maybe. It was one of the SkyWing princesses after all. Who knows! I definitely want to know, so we can get out of this heat…. It's worst than the rainforest." Berry knew that was one thing he could agree on with himself, it felt like it was a thousand degrees outside. Actually, he couldn't determine if it was the heat or the sudden realization, but he had a brilliant idea.

 _What if… We hunt down the murder…. Then… We could go back to the academy… Problem solved! And, we will be heroes!_

He grinned slightly at Polar, going over this idea in his head multiple times. Maybe he and his 'group' could forward with this seemingly bright idea!

* * *

 **Author's Note- Oh, Berry...You crazy little bean.**


	5. Chapter 4

**Author's Note- Hello, there! I hope your enjoying this story :D Dragonfly is owned by Animals**

 **But, we don't own Wings of Fire!**

* * *

 **-Chapter Four -**

 **-Dragonfly's POV-**

"Everybody! Jade Mountain Academy! W-we will depart to the Jade Mountain immediately!"

Principal Shrimp's voice rang out around the Scorpion Den theatre that all of the students were back sitting in, after an hour at the courtroom. A few dragonets glanced around to look at each other. Dragonfly guessed that they were thinking something along the lines of, 'I thought we were all being investigated'.

 _Hm.. Maybe they learned a valuable lesson about how a dragonet who attends Jade Mountain and probably knows close to nothing about Ebony would not kill the queen herself._ Dragonfly snorted to herself, _Well, at least we can finally go back. It is way too hot here and I'm not even a IceWing or anything._

Queen Jasper had strolled out of the courtroom and to the theatre, accompanied by a few SandWing guards. The SandWing queen's gaze was fixed on the students of the Academy.

"We took care of this issue," the queen said firmly. "You may leave now- it is not the SandWing issue, nor is it Jade Mountain Academy's."

Dragonfly sharply sucked in air, _But, honestly, we stayed here shorter than I originally thought._

She eyed carefully as Shrimp started beckoning the students. Dragonfly slowly got up, glancing around quickly to look for the rest of her Winglet. She saw Berry nervously following Shrimp, Polar curling her snout at any dragon that came close to her, and Labradorite following Shrimp, a plain look on their face, bored, even. Dragonfly herself was cautiously following Shrimp, as if a dragon could randomly pop out of the sand and stab her with a dagger. She looked around once again, and was bumped into multiple times, because of the large amount of closely packed students shuffling towards Shrimp. She heard a SandWing muttering complaints under his breath, and on her other side a IceWing was shouting at any dragon that happened to bump into her. Dragonfly gritted her teeth and starting generally muttering about how annoying half of the students at the Mountain Academy were. She then saw Shrimp fly up. Like a giant wave, all of the students flew up, from front to the back. When Dragonfly flew up, she grunted at the massive amount of flapping wings crowding around her. She looked, once again, for her Winglet. This time she saw Illusion, Polar, and Labradorite. Illusion was quizzically eyeing the crowd while flying along, Polar was a bit higher and off to the side instead of flying with everydragon else. And Labradorite was just flying about ten dragons ahead of Dragonfly, the same, plain look on their face.

* * *

Dragonfly saw the great figure of Jade Mountain not far ahead. The great mountain stretched up and touched the clouds. It would always leave her in awe, however many times she saw it. Her wings ached, because of the long flight. But, she was determined to get back to the mountain and _eat_ and _sleep_. Shrimp swerved around to face the students, and everyone stopped abruptly, making Dragonfly nearly bump into a RainWing in front of her. The slightly scrawny SeaWing started to cry out;

"The school will be taken inside in groups!" Dragonfly saw Shrimp think for a moment, "Quartz Winglet! You go in first."

To these words, seven dragons, assumingly all from the Quartz Winglet, dived down, and entered the enormous mountain.

Shrimp looked around, "Okay, next, The Jade Winglet shall enter the Academy!"

 _That's my cue,_ thought Dragonfly before diving down, watching as the rest of her Winglet went with her, landing at the stony entrance. They all went into the brooding cave of an entrance. Labradorite was on one side of Dragonfly, and Polar was on the other. The coldness of being so near to Polar's freezescales was incredibly obvious. Dragonfly turned her head sharply to Polar,

"Do you mind?" she hissed, "Your scales are FREEZING."

Polar curled her snout. "Oh, I'm _sorry_ Princess Smartmouth, how _incredibly_ rude of me to be near Her Majesty! Ugh.. _SUCH DISGRACE_!"

Dragonfly hissed angrily, wanting _so hard_ to be able to shove Polar, but that would be idiotic, extremely idiotic. Dragonfly glanced around to look for Illusion, because Polar was already with her, but Illusion was not there, _Must have gone to the room._ Dragonfly pondered, before going into her sleeping cavern, and, soon enough, Illusion was sitting on her bed in her little 'cave'. Dragonfly lumbered over to her bed, which was just a few leaves with mud splattered around, and Polar's 'bed' USED to be a dip in stone with a few bits of snow, but at that point it was just a frozen sheet of ice. In fact the whole quarter of the room that inhabited Polar was frozen with sharp, low-dipping icicles. And a lot of parts around the Academy had slippery ice as the floor. Dragonfly sighed loudly, and tucked her muzzle into her tail. But, before she could even close her eyes, she was cut off by a loud, shrieking hiss from Polar,

"How can you just SLEEP like NOTHING just happened? ICE-LICKING IDIOT!" Dragonfly heard Polar get up and stomp over.

She heard some of the mud freeze and an abrupt coldness, and when she peeked up, what she saw was a towering Polar, about an inch from her face, the mud that was her bed frozen to iridescent sheets of ice. Dragonfly quickly slipped away, hissing furiously at Polar.

"Idiot.." Dragonfly heard Polar mutter under her breath. Polar set down a talon into her bed and step down, turning her bed completely to ice, and now the middle of the room had an ice floor,

" _SERIOUSLY_?" Dragonfly roared, sinking her claws into her bed of now ice. Or at least, she tried. It was completely frozen. And she could not even breath fire on it because the room was extremely cold when Polar was there. "Illusion?" Dragonfly said slowly to Illusion, fighting to keep her voice steady, "Could you thaw the ice that.. Polar just froze on my.. bed. She, as you saw… _froze it over_."

Illusion looked carefully at Dragonfly, before getting up from her scroll, padding over the ice, and Dragonfly watched impatiently as Illusion gathered fire in her throat, and breathed it out onto the ice. Over. And over. The thought that Polar could do this at ANY TIME annoyed her to the three moons. Polar had sulked off to the far-end of the cave, but with this nasty hostile stare and an equally disturbing wrinkled snarl across her snout. How, out of all the dragonets in the whole Academy, did she end up with the violent and cursed IceWing. The others were 'ok'.

Illusion was still trying to melt the ice, lines of worry appeared on her brow. Dragonfly huffed, and laid down near Illusion's side, the only spot not covered in ice. Polar stayed in her corner, and Dragonfly would stay in her's, that's how it was for the past month. Poor Illusion was always caught in the fray. Tension was in the air, and Illusion stopped and looked at the two,

"Ahem. Can you two just apologize to each other? The sooner we get this over with, the sooner I can return to my scroll...please?"

Dragonfly scoffed, as she turned to her other side, "Tell IceNightmare that I ain't saying sorry. It could be _months_ until that stuff thaws out."

"ICENIGHTMARE! Oh, looks who's talking, I didn't know I was talking to Queen Sasstail, oh sorry for mistaking you for your worthless self! Oh, disgrace on my family, and their offspring!" Polar dramatically cried, Dragonfly growled.

Dragonfly silently wished that it wasn't the Ice Kingdom in this room, so she could have enough heat to scorch Polar, even if it wouldn't do any good. Illusion groaned,

"Can you two get along for once?!"

"NO! Not until the Queen decides to chill it!"

"Me chill it?! You basically chilled the whole sleeping cave into a living ice prison!" Dragonfly shoot up from her spot, baring her teeth.

Dragonfly watched carefully as Polar sat in her 'bed', a smug look on Polar's face, "Oh no! The Queen of Mud is being quite dramatic for her bed being frozen!" Polar hissed, "Shouldn't you be grateful that you don't have to live not being able to touch ANYONE?" Polar's hiss turned to a semi-roar, "And you're complaining about a simple frozen bed. I'm trapped in a body of scales that can kill _JUST BY TOUCH_! Trust me, it is not fun to be avoiding touching ANYONE since you're a tiny dragonet. Your past was all dandy. In case you didn't know, my parents were killed when I was small, I had a murderous brother, and I later on had to freeze him! Wow, you really are ungrateful, aren't ye?"

Suddenly, Berry crashed into the room, Dragonfly observed that his scales were a gold-yellow and a flashing pink going through every so often. Berry looked around and Dragonfly saw him see the look on Polar and her's faces.

"Um… were you fighting?" Berry asked approachably.

"You _think?_ " Polar hissed, baring her icicle-like fangs.

"I was just going to say-"

"Lucky freaking time to barge in." put in Dragonfly.

"Was going to say that-"

He was cut off my an obnoxious snort from Polar.

"WAS GOING TO SAY THAT I am getting the Winglet together for a talk- I had an idea."

Dragonfly slowly rose from her spot, muttering under her breath. She then saw Polar get up, an.. unpleasant look on her face. Illusion then layed down her scroll and tucked it into a little crack on the stone before following.

"Exactly how important is this?" grumbled Polar.

"Well… It's a good idea and.. It'll get us out of here. Let's just.. Get to the meeting spot and I'll talk. Everyone else is there."

Once they have gotten to the 'meeting spot' Dragonfly idly sat down next to Illusion, Polar on her other side.

"So. What was this for?" muttered Labradorite.

"Yeah. I don't want this to waste my time." butted in Polar.

"Well- I had the idea that.. Well… we could find who murdered Ebony," Berry said. "We could, first, be fully trusted, second, be able to return to normal, and third, SURELY we would get a prize or 'thank you' of some sorts, or… maybe we could be heroes…yeah!"

All of the dragonets were silent.

Dragonfly was the first to break the uncomfortable silence.

"We could get killed. Or flap around and never find them."

"We have clues!" Berry said.

"That's true." Illusion said quietly.

Berry nodded enthusiastically, "See! Illusion agre-"

Dragonfly was confused. "What clues?" she asked.

"Oh, I'll tell you, later!" Berry grinned, flicking his long tail about.

"I can go too, whatever." Labradorite muttered.

"Labradorite _and_ Illusion agree!" Berry said, nodding again.

"There is no way you're getting me to aimlessly flap around!" Polar hissed, half roared.

"Three moons calm down!" snarled Dragonfly.

Dragonfly watched as Polar turned to look at her, and Dragonfly saw such hatred and regret in her eyes.

 _I guess that's my response,_ she thought.

"Okay, fine, I'll go." Dragonfly muttered. It was really because Polar might not go, and she would take any risk not to be around her.

"Yay!" cried Berry, "Now a little less than half the Winglet!"

"I'll go!" Skyfall cried cheerfully.

Soon, most of the Winglet had agreed, after Berry talked them into it, except for Polar.

"You are NOT getting me out there!" Polar shrieked, backing away, "The SkyWings are not my responsibility!"

Skyfall crouched down somewhat, her ears down. "O-oh" she whimpered softly, keeping her head down and her tail between her legs, she walked out of the cave.

Polar shouted after her. "Yeah! Run with your tail between your legs, peasant!"

Berry sighed, "Okay.. We'll go without you if you demand."

Dragonfly nodded, and then saw Skyfall poke her head in,

"We're going without Polar," Dragonfly said to Skyfall

"U-uh.. okay…" Skyfall murmured.

Dragonfly started to walk out of the room, and soon the rest of the Winglet caught up with her. They all went to traversed the winding corridors and tunnels, until they stopped at the wide gaping mountain's mouth, when suddenly, Dragonfly could hear shouting in the distance.

"Can you hear that?" asked Berry.

"I can," replied Dragonfly.

Dragonfly looked around and saw the shape of a red dragon coming. He was SLIGHTLY familiar…

 _He's the one that was able to touch Polar. The one that pinned her down._

They all watched as the on fire SkyWing landed before them, "WHY are you here?" hissed Dragonfly repetitively.

Wildfire snorted. "I'm here for my heart, I'm not letting you lot near her."

Polar was making her way to the front of the school to see what was going on, "What's this _noise_ all abou-" Upon seeing Wildfire standing there, she froze. "What are _you_ doing here?" she hissed, her eyes narrowing.

Wildfire's face lit up upon seeing and hearing the IceWing. "I knew you'd be here!" he shouted.

"And why exactly do you seem so happy about that?" Polar snarled furiously, "The last time I spoke to you, you were sending me to court."

"Well-"

"Am I just supposed to go 'oh hey buddy ol' pal remember that time you wanted to send me to court? Good times.' Hah, no. You ain't getting that from me."

Wildfire blinked a few times, before growling. "No". The reddish gold male slammed his tail against the ground. "You are coming with me"

"Excuse ME?" Polar snarled fiercely.

Dragonfly watched as the IceWing backed up, turning the stone under her feet into ice.

Wildfire glared at the ground. "You heard me, you are coming with _me"._

"And why is that?" she hissed through gritted teeth. "I guess Mr. Happyface turned to demand me to come with him."

"Because you are mine to keep" he snarled, acting like a child that had lost a favorite play thing.

"Actually, I'm not. In case you did not know. We've met once and now you're saying I'm yours? Like some kind of item?"

Polar whipped Wildfire's face with her dangerously thin tail. Dragonfly had no idea what to say.

Wildfire scowled, throwing a hissy fit, "You don't get it, don't you?!"

"What, that you are becoming obsessive over a dragon you just meant?!"

"You know how it is like to not touch anyone for years, but know how it felt before you couldn't, then you meet the one dragon that can, in years of not touching anything. It's mind-blowing, it's…..it...felt so strange, but right." Wildfire turned away a bit, looking down at the stone floor, red-hot from Wildfire's scales.

"Actually, I do know it is mind-blowing. But-" she let out the last words in a hiss, " _That doesn't mean you should treat them like your own specific doll_."

Wildfire try to speech, but closed his mouth instead. He stood there for a minute, the sound of crackling only filled the silence, then he spoke with a soft voice, "I….I can help you guys then," He turned to the rest of the Jade Winglet, "I could take you to my tribe's kingdom...I'm in the royal guard, so others wouldn't worry so much."

"Well… It definitely COULD be useful, to have a trusted drag- Wait, do you even know what we are doing?" Dragonfly said slowly.

"I actually came to ask you guys for help...I thought….I could help Pol- It doesn't matter, you guys look like you have the same plans that I had in mind...To avenge my queen, or at least find out who murdered Ebony.." Wildfire's wings ruffled, he turned towards the mountain cave's mouth.

"I mean.. Well, yes, that was our plan. Polar isn't goin-" Berry was cut off by Polar,

"I'm going." Polar cutted in, "I've changed my mind."

"Why? You know what, I think we shouldn't really ask. It's great that you changed your mind, this is going to be awesome!" Pink-Sand pitched in, smiling after.

Polar rolled her eyes "Woo! Flying around with no sense of direction! _FUN_!" she said sarcastically.

"This is going to be totally fun!" Berry chirped, clearly not picking up on the sarcastic comment.

"So. When are we going?" asked Labradorite.

"Now!" cried Skyfall.

To this, they all powered into the air, and they were off.

* * *

 **Author's Note- A bunch of arguments and the Jade Winglet just turned into Mystery Inc.**

 **Question Of The Chapter- Do you think Wildfire is crushing on Polar? (And, should we do these Question Of The Chapter's?)**


	6. Chapter 5

**Author's Note- Hello, my beautiful people! Jade Winglet here, and you know what that means, new chapter! Yay! And, all the lovely authors of this collab are here also, yay, enjoy!**

 **We don't own Wings Of Fire, but we own the OCs**

* * *

- **Chapter Five** -

 **-Skyfall's POV-**

Skyfall squealed with glee, her eyes lighting up cheerfully as she swerved through the sky, dipping and turning through her friends joyfully.

She opened her mouth to shout something at the other dragonets- but something hit the back of her throat.

The SkyWing shoved her talons against her snout, eyes wide. "I SWALLOWED A BUG" she screeched, closing her wings in and falling, before spreading her membranes again and pushing herself to use her large wings to get back up.

Polar snarled at the weakling, "Get your filthy, stupid claws off me you imbecile!" she shouted, wriggling around.

Skyfall giggled, squealing out a reply of 'You look like a worm!'.

Polar looked at Berry with a face that clearly said 'I'm going to snap your neck if you don't do something right the moons now'.

Berry threw up his claws in mock surrender, "Who am I to argue with her highness, Queen Salt?" he questioned with sarcasm, as half the Jade Winglet had trouble holding in their laughter.

"I'm going to end your life"

"You're like a constant downer"

"I will rip your throat out"

"This is new information how?"

"...I hate you all"

"We got that, Miss Edgy."

"LOOK!" Skyfall shouted, pointing at tall, stone structures, eyes lighting up- and then dimming significantly.

"U-um, I may have f-forgotten to mention something"

"WHAT YOU IMBECILE" Polar roared.

"I was kind of...um...forbidden from entering because I didn't learn to fly until I was three…"

"...Oh three moons everyone is stupid." Dragonfly snarled, snorting fire from her nostrils.

Wildfire, Polar and Berry groaned in despair.

"This is why we need to talk to each other like normal dragons," Berry started, but was quickly cut off by Polar. "This is why I hate all of you! All the tribes are stupid! ESPECIALLY SKYWINGS" she screamed, glaring at Wildfire and Skyfall.

Wildfire shouted back "WHAT DID I DO?"

"YOU'RE BEING A CREEPY STALKER!"

"WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING!"

"I'm going to die surrounded by idiots" Dragonfly murmured.

The squad of dragons dived closer to the ground, drifting along at a lower height, but still high enough to not hit the ground snout-first, they all were following an agitated Berry.

Pink-Sand snorted softly, looking off to the distance, clearly displeased at the fighting.

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, Skyfall spotted the faint shape of a pale dragon flying by. Not towards them, just… flying.

 _An_ IceWing _in_ SkyWing _territory? What? Strange. Well, besides us, but it's still strange._

But the faint shape was only visible for a few moments, before becoming a hardly visible silhouette in the clear blue sky. Skyfall noticed Pink-Sand gazing curiously at the spot where the IceWing disappeared off too, her face scrunched up.

 _I wonder why she's acting like tha- wait.. It's probably because it's a IceWing, here of all places!_

"So...how are we going to get everyone in..you think it's kinda of strange to see seven dragonets from each tribe and a fire-scales flying into the main villages? This isn't one of the minor ones, we going into the village right next to the palace, and..." Pink-Sand said, but her voice sounded disturbed and concerned, "Talons and tails, look at the size of that wall!"

The dragonets sped by a massive wall of jutting spikes of stone, a bustling town filled with markets was right below the wall, giant scarlet taperies with the same bold orange SkyWing emblem flew in the wind, guard towers dotted the wall with SkyWing guards watching diligently over the town, others carrying out daily duties. Many tall gates speckled the stone wall, with plenty of SkyWings or other tribe diplomats or visitors scrambling in and out as each gate slowly opened time to time.

"Ditch the village plan, we're going to the palace." Wildfire spoke up, and the dragonets uneasily descended towards the foot of the wall, landing softly on the grass, a large mahogany wood gate stood in front of them.

"Who made you leader?" Polar snapped picking her talons up as the grass froze, Wildfire groaned and Berry seemed slightly offended.

"Look, my original plan was to go to the palace and offer the new queen my help. But, I didn't expect to bring along more than one dragon… Anyways, we are not going to get any useful information out of the villagers, only rumours floated around in that village. I know, because I visited it on some of my guard duties." Wildfire turned to the dragonets, "Can we at least take moment to realize we are randomly searching for a murderer? With no motivation or any good reason at all? So, I'll take 'lead' because at least I know what I am doing!"

"That's one thing we can agree on." Illusion muttered, walking up to the mahogany gate, focusing on dragging one talon down the wood carefully, "Honestly, I am having second thoughts...Do we even have a plan? We left the academy two days ago, without telling anyone or any valid plan. And, we only knew where to start, because of Wildfire."

"And, Berry still hasn't told us the 'clues' he had found." Labradorite spoke up, deadpan.

"I thought we agreed?" Berry's voice sounded brittle and hurt, his eyes darkened.

"We trust you and are with you, Berry. But, I can't be sure until you give me the truth." Illusion looked down, and walked away gate.

A moment of silence rippled in the air, and Wildfire awkwardly trotted up to the gate, clearing his throat.

"Lieutenant Wildfire, reporting! Requesting access!"

A red-orange SkyWing leaned over from the balcony opening of one of the guard posts,

"How many guests you have, Lieutenant?"

"Seven…?"

"You may enter, but if your guests cause any problems within the palace walls, we are legally allowed to kill them, it was declared by Queen Amaranth."

"Which we probably will be.." muttered Illusion, as the intimidating gates slowly opened up, revealing a gorgeous courtyard.

"Wait, how did we get inside so easily?" Labradorite glanced around, as the dragonets followed Wildfire nervously into the courtyard.

"I was really expecting them to not let us in, I had a whole speech and everything, for a good excuse. But, I guess the new queen is really friendly...or well protected, because that fact is so obvious, look how many guards she had put along the walls!" Wildfire exclaimed, and he was right. Skyfall could sense dozens of eyes watching her, and she didn't intend to look back at them.

"Leaping dolphins, they must really do things quickly in the Sky Kingdom! It's only been two and half days, and they already have a new queen. I hope she is friendly as Wildfire says," said Pink-Sand, as they passed by mountains of flowers contain in a flower bed, and fancy prim white marble statues of SkyWings throughout history, cascading small brooks slithered around the courtyard.

"He doesn't even know who's his queen is. How can we assume that she is even nice?" huffed Dragonfly. "And isn't our quick allowance of entry a little bit concerning and suspicious?"

"Exactly. He's a lizard-eating idiot," snarled Polar, shooting a fiery glance at Wildfire.

 _Must still be mad. Makes sense._ Thought Skyfall curiously.

Wildfire quickly snatched one of her talons, "Please, trust me. I'm with you and your-"

Polar threw off Wildfire's talons, "Don't touch me," she hissed.

Wildfire sighed and grumbled a bit before looking ahead and continuing forward. Skyfall noticed a particularly grumpy look in his eyes.

"SO," said Pink-Sand suddenly, "Uh.. where exactly are we going?"

"Inside the palace, of course," Wildfire said without looking at her.

"Inside the _palace_?" Skyfall butted in in awe. "What if they don't let us in?"

"Quite likely," said Berry from behind them, quietly.

"They'll let you in if I'm with you. Probably. They let us pass the walls.."

"HOW REASSURING," hissed Polar angrily, "Also, I hope you all realize I can freeze you to an ice statue when I wish, except for Mr. Obsessed over there."

"Yes, and it's disturbingly obvious," said Berry, looking at the stone and dirt that Polar was freezing under her.

"Smgh.." muttered Dragonfly. Skyfall stared at her, and knew her gaze said, _I FREAKING KNOW AND IT'S UNFAIR!_

Wildfire turned a corner. And there, was the behemoth of a palace. Skyfall stood, gaping. The tall, crystal towers were lined with all sorts of rubies, peridots, jades, and sapphires. An archway with a marble-and-quartz path under it marked the entrance. There were over a dozen statues and fountains of rushing waterfalls with beautiful jewels studded at the sides. The palace glistened before them, glittering in the sunlight. It was shimmering rainbow, and red underlined the pretty iridescent sheets of sparkle. Then, she heard the familiar freezing sound…

"Polar! You're freezing the queen's pathway!" Wildfire hissed, rushing over to melt the ice that was forming over the precious marbles and quartz.

Polar snorted, glaring at Wildfire with a steady gaze, "Oh, I'm sorry. It's not like I am stuck with this! I could have had a normal IceWing life. But instead, I'm stuck with a curse, a brother who I had to kill, and a sister who can't protect herself! And, oh, guess WHAT? The scales.. The scales… YOU of all dragons would know what it's like!" Skyfall caught a bit of hurt in Polar's eyes.

 _Hmm… I always thought she was just… hard to the core.. Maybe.. Just maybe not?_

"In fact, I D-"

"But at least dragons consider you as one of the same."

"For your information, they don't consider me the sa-"

"At least you had a nice life of being a pretty boy _royal_ guard who is perfectly fine in his kingdom just guarding for- oh no! _Rabbit thieves_!" Polar hissed through gritted teeth.

Through all of this arguing, they have reached the gaping mouth of the palace door. Skyfall only realized she had been holding her breath when she let it out as she brushed her talons softly against the magnificent jade that lined the palace. Her talons brushed against the sparkling, hard stone.

The SkyWing elbowed Berry, seeing his still annoyed face, her eyes glittered.

"Come on, stop sulking! We're at the one and only Sky Palace- it's magnificent! I've never seen it before!" Skyfall half whispered excitedly into Berry's ear.

Berry slowly inhaled, and exhaled. "Smmmghh.." he muttered.

Skyfall took that as a 'yes', finally Berry was cheering up and she smiled, before looking up to see Wildfire had flew up to a couple of guards on ledges, symmetrically on both sides of the door. He looked nervous talking to the palace guards, who had stony faces, and long, steel spears, and were inching away from Wildfire. The SkyWings were shifting their spears, eyeing the odd display of dragons. They both paused on Polar,

"What's up with that ICEWING? The scale colouring looks like half lazy RainWing.. and why is the floor under their talons ice? It's ruining the palace entrance!" One of them snarled.

"Oh, Condor, that's Polar.. they're a 'freeze-scales' so they turn everything to ice. I can actually touch her," Wildfire explained, "About the damage...I'll fix it!"

Condor laughed so loud he snorted, not believing this explanation one bit. "That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard! There's no such thing as 'freeze-scales', and there's no such thing as you, of all dragons, able to be touched, not since when you were two years old and a private." Condor lifted his spear and prodded it against Polar's scales. But it couldn't even touch her, because it froze the whole sharp part of the spear on contact.

"Need any more explanations, freakin' scavenger?" Polar snarled, "Don't even try to spear me. Ain't gonna work."

Condor lashed his tail, staring at the the ice that used to be the sharp part, wide eye, "You broke my _spear_!"

Polar puffed frost breath from her nose, which made Condor jump back, which probably satisfied Polar, "In case you didn't know, that was all you. You, being the useless, forever alone, stony-faced, snarling idiot you are, attempting to touched me with your spear, because you apparently didn't see the clear ice beneath me. You're more stupid than you think."

Wildfire elbowed Polar and muttered something in her ear, which Skyfall managed to catch, "Can you stop? This will make it less likely for them to trust us."

Condor shuffled away to the farthest end of the wide guard's ledge, yelping, "Just let them in! I don't want to be around that ice-beast or the fire-freak!"

The guards muttered to each other, nervously, clearly not wanting to spend more time with both a fire-scales and a new 'freeze-scales' dragons, "Come on in, no funny business. This is the SKYWING palace. Remember got eyes everywhere."

Polar cruelly 'teased' Condor by swinging her tail an inch away from the SkyWing's face, making them jump back impulsively.

And with that, they went into the palace…. And the Jade Winglet's journey had at last begun.

* * *

 **Author's Note- Polar is quite the dramatic one ain't she? And, Berry being a grump, I blame the others for infecting the pure boy with grumpy thoughts.**


	7. Chapter 6

**Author 's Note- Hey, Jade Winglet here. Not to be confuse with the real Jade Winglet! This chapter was a real pain to write, because in fact, it's the longest so far. So prepare your wings. A lot of plot is underway!**

* * *

- **Chapter Six** -

 **-Illusion's POV-**

Illusion looked around- or at least side to side. The ceiling stretched up high, gold and sapphires embedded in pillars and silver decorations. The roof arched up, and looked kind of like clouds and a sky.. Except with a unnameable amount of different jewels and gems creating the magnificent pattern. Under Illusion's talons was a pale salmon-red carpet with orange decorations dancing up it. Gracefully before them, was a wide hallway with many chandeliers and candles and statues, dark shapes of guards were in the corners and darker edges of the hallway.

Every-so-often was a door lined in jade and quartz. There were few plants, except for a fine clay pot hanging from a high spot on the wall, filled with red-and-purple flowers and vines. Illusion knew they were currently ruining the carpet and few bits of the walls behind them, though, being as the sound of the freezing of items filled the air, signaling that Polar was not in the slightest trying to guard the fancy display from her freeze-scales. Dragonfly muttered a few 'ahems' and coughed every so often as she notic-ed particularly.. Shiny.. _Expensive_.. Looking statues being taken by the cold grip of Polar's freeze-scales. Wildfire was doing his best to melt all of the ice, but most of the marks still left noticeable damage.

"HMM.. So where exactly are we going first?" Labradorite muttered, sniffing a oddly low, for most of the plants, vine.

"To introduce you to Queen Eb- Queen Amaranth," Wildfire briskly replied.

"And who knows if these empty-souled guards will let us do that?" muttered Polar, a scowl curling up her snout.

"Ah! The guests are here!" yelled a unfamiliar voice, and suddenly three posh-dressed SkyWings came bursting down the hallway. A scrawny fourth dragon followed behind.

"Welcome, Lieutenant Wildfire." An orange-gold SkyWing bowed respectfully. They were clearly a guard of some sorts.

"Did you bring all of the seven diplomats Queen Amaranth requested?" A bulky red SkyWing, the host, smiled at the guests.

"Wait.. Since when did Amaranth request seven dragons? I'm the one who asked for permission for them to go into the palace walls? I'm confused. She requested them?" Wildfire said in a confused manner.

"The seven special diplomats, sent by all seven queens, to discuss the relations of the tribes with the new queen?" said the dark red SkyWing in a concerned and panicked tone, the scribe.

"Hm.. I have not heard of this.. To.. discuss the relations of the tribes you say?" Wildfire tapped his claw against the carpet, which was just a scorched mess. "I met these dragons and they wished to meet the queen, on their own will… How new is this request-?"

"It was made soon after the killing.. We actually expected it to just be the seven visitors.." the red dragon host made a 'tsk' sound under his breath and met eye level with Wildfire, "I do not believe this is a mistake.. But um.. I… Don't know.." the poor SkyWing looked down again, the look on his face clearly said ' _I better not be making a mistake! That would be horribly embarrassing_ '.

"Three moons, what happened to the real visitors?! Ugh, this is ruining the rightful tradition. We're going to make a bad impression with the real diplomats. What if this ruins our chances with making better connections with the queens!" tautly said the dark red scribe, looking straight at the host, with a worry-sickened expression.

"May I KINDLY interject, but when does this 'oh-no-have-I-messed-up' situation end?" Dragonfly questioned, and was followed by a rude grunt from Polar.

"The longer we stand here, the more my ice spreads." said Polar in a matter-of-fact tone, which was true, because the ice was climbing up the walls now.

"AH! The walls!" yelped the servant, then the fourth, and by now forgotten, a dragoness shoved her way through the three, unexpectedly it wasn't a SkyWing, but a SandWing.

"Cool it, Valley. I got this," confidently said the SandWing, but her voice was more soft-spoken.

Wildfire elbowed Polar with a hiss, but it was cut off, probably from the thought that it wasn't really her fault.

"Just get me some useless decoration, or something! Quick! Mountain, stop chattering like a scared pigeon, and help clean this mess for me, please. And, Peak, can you move a bit?"

Valley, the servant, scrabbled to get something, and quickly clutched onto a glass figurine of a SkyWing princess, Mountain, the scribe scattered off into the halls, to get either maids, or towels. And, Peak, the host swiftly dashed away, following Mountain, probably to help him.

Illusion guessed, judging by the smug look on her face, that Polar _really_ wanted to go ahead and freeze even more delicate and insanely expensive decorations dancing down the hall.

Wildfire started to lead the group onward, to get out of the awkward situation. Polar quickly caught up with him, a scowl on her snout.

"I enchant this glass figurine to get rid of the ice on the walls and floor and restore the damage objects to normal…...and weaken the IceWing's ice-scales and Wildfire's fire-scales within the palace walls." muttered the SandWing, and the glass figurine opal eyes seem to glow. Wildfire stopped dead in his tracks as the sound of burning stopped, and the sound of freezing silenced.

"What in all mighty three moons," exclaimed Wildfire, as he stopped and hopped around, as the scorched spots disappeared and no longer continue to burn, only seemly warm to the touch.

Polar saw that no ice was on the floor, and took one step, and reeled away in utter terror as only weak frost was left.

"How-" Polar's jaws dropped, and she sat down, defeated and truly scared.

"My name is Beryl. And, I am the o-official SandWing a-animus. Oh, and I also s-serve under Queen Amaranth now." Beryl smiled, her voice was weak, but only a few minutes ago, it was powerful and cool.

Polar glared at Beryl with an utterly dark glare, rage twitched in her talons. "Stay away from me, freak," snarled the IceWing.

Polar ground her claws into the carpet. Her eyes were hateful and full of rage at the SandWing.

"I hate you and all of your kind more than anything. Keep in mind I want to tear out the throat of a certain animus. Literally tear his throat out and freeze his body and-"

"Okay, I don't need the details.." breathed Beryl.

"So, why didn't you just get rid of them?" Wildfire eagerly poked the carpet with his talons. "Won't that be easier?"

"Well, I could explain." The pale gold SandWing grinned.

"Polar's situation is, that her curse is so complex and elaborate, that other animus magic can't fix it. You can ask me, I tried."

"WHAT," roared Polar, "YOU TRIED!?"

"You mean, you don't r-remember?" Beryl tilted her head, and Polar furiously shook her head, still flinching with every step. "Remember w-when we m-met on the first days of the a-academy? During the Winglet Meetings? When I finally admit that I was an a-animus, you asked me to c-cure you of your c-curse? And, I t-tried, and disappointedly couldn't undo it ,b-because how complex it is? Remember a-any of that?"

Polar stalked over to the SandWing, towering over her with a dark look in her eyes, but also a tad of remembrance, "Don't you dare talk about me, come near me, OR TALK TO ME! Please kindly CREEP OFF to your low-life den of CRUEL ANIMI!" Polar roared, her claws twitching in rage, the weak frost quickly spread.

"U-um.. O-okay.." Beryl shrank away, trying to avoid Polar's intimidating glare.

"Wait, you were in Jade Mountain Academy also? Why didn't we notice you right away?" Labradorite asked, and Beryl nervously shrugged.

"I was g-given a letter of summoning from Queen Jasper, so I left d-during the second week, I guess nobody really remembers me. I hope my W-winglet got a new SandWing," Beryl sighed, "I don't know m-much about why I was exactly g-given to, back then, Princess Amaranth. Amaranth doesn't really tell me, nor does anybody q-question it. H-however, I am more happier here..And I made this during my s-stay, which has helped me restrict my animus abilities, so I wouldn't go insane or anything. Another reason that I couldn't take b-both of your e-effect scales away." Beryl lifted her arm, and a fashionable silver bracelet with small garnets speckling it.

"Queen Amaranth is p-practically a second-mother to me. She h-helped me get the idea to suppress that u-ugly wild urge you saw early. I get these boosts of confidence when I know I could use my magic, but sometimes it might not be for the better, and I might even do a malevolent spell while I get this 'power-mad urge' as Amaranth calls it. I a-always theorized that Queen Jasper s-sent me to Amaranth and Ebony, because I was too w-wild, and they were the perfect candidates to cool me down, and the b-best thing is that Peak, Mountain and Valley are now my d-dearest friends," Beryl smiled, and turned towards Valley, who was cleaning the leftover frost, "Anyways, we m-must go, right Valley?"

Valley nodded, and the two exchanged their goodbyes, and then left the regal hallway.

"Good riddance," Polar snorted.

The group awkwardly continued on. A weird silence had settled. A couple of seconds later Pink-Sand spoke up,

"Why do you hate animi so much? I mean.. Are you jealous or something..?"

"Oh, have I really not told you guys?" sighed Polar, as the others shook their heads, "I know I told Wildfire, when he was first sending me to court. I swear I told you guys… Oh well."

 _It's probably not a good reason.. Polar is quite hot-headed.._ Illusion pondered.

"I'm not a natural born freeze-scales, obviously, I mean IceWings can't even be born with these _scales_. I could have lived a normal IceWing life… maybe even if I hadn't been cursed, my parents wouldn't have died-"

"Wait, cursed? How would you be cursed?" interjected Berry.

"Just listen to me," she snapped, "When I was still in a egg my mother cheated with an animus… Soon, the animus found out, that my mother was with someone else. S-o… they enchanted me, right before I hatched, to be completely out of the ordinary.. My _real_ father witnessed it.. He said the dragon made sure the curse was nice and long, elaborate and cruel… but you heard Beryl say I was enchanted.. LONG STORY SHORT, I could have not been a freakish monster, I could have lived a normal life without stares and whispers of fear.. About how different and odd I am.. Of how I shouldn't be like I am. And I shouldn't.." Polar let out a breath of sorrow and put her head in her talons.

 _This is so.. Odd.. I thought she was all hard and dark and stuff… I guess she has more elaborate layers.. Okay, I admit that's a pretty good reason, but it was only one animus… Oh well, I guess she just hates animi in general since she blames them for turning her into who she is._

"So now, here, I'm an ugly monster that hates others for no reason… Oh, also, another reason why I hate that animus.. THEY'RE THE ONE WHO KILLED MY PARENTS! It makes it even worse because they lied to my mother and killed her… And no one knows. Because I was just the stupid, weird dragonet that is sad and blaming random dragons. I know it was them.. They-y told me before fleeing.. I don't know.. My whole life is a pile of scavenger dung because of that animus.. I would have b-een a normal dragonet living a happy life.. With no reason to hate myself with every bit of my strength.. _What other explanations do you need_?" Polar breathed slowly in and out.

Pink-Sand was loudly swishing her tail back and forth. Polar shot a glare at her because of this.

They had finally reached the doors to the throne room. Wildfire slowly knocked, and the large doors opened, revealing a huge throne with a dragon heavily covered in jewels atop it. She was holding a medallion and a gem in her talon, and was gently brushing her claw down the pearl surface.

 _Amaranth._

Wildfire tipped his head and bowed deeply. Pink-Sand, Berry, Skyfall, Illusion, and Labradorite did the same. Polar and Dragonfly didn't.

"So. My guards were kind enough to inform me when you came in. Quite the group. As you know, I'm _Queen_ Amaranth. The oldest heir to the throne after ex-Queen Ebony." She emphasized on the _Queen_ part.

"Your Majesty." Wildfire bowed again. "We have come as guests to your palace."

"So I see," the Queen muttered, her tongue flicking in and out, as if she was thinking about something. "What do you need me for, anyways? Not like, I am going to say yes, because you didn't do what I asked you, but let that be water under the bridge as the SeaWings say."

"We were thinking of finding out why Queen Ebony was killed- and who did it. We thought to start off with the Sky Kingdom." the SkyWing smiled.

"Hmm.. So you came to me, ah?" the large Queen sucked one of her sharp teeth, "For.. clues.."

"Correct, my Queen." Wildfire bowed, once again.

"I have a quick question- I thought you were one of those odd.. extra fire SkyWings.. It doesn't look like that. I've seen all of my guards around, so I know you're usually more.. fiery.. And you, IceWing, gossip travels fast. I heard you killed one of my guards with… your scales. You don't seem to be very icy right now.. Only frost? Ah, I might have heard it wrong and you killed my guard with your claws, but that did not happen, according to my other guards."

Polar dug her claws into the fine carpet, "Your animus enchanted me and Wildfire here to have less fire and ice inside the palace walls." she hissed angrily.

"Hmm.. without my permission? Odd.. I'll have a word with her. Anyway, so, why should I help you with these.. Clues?" Amaranth continued to brush her claw over the surface of the medallion and other jewels.

"Well, wouldn't you want avenge your own mother? Even, if you knew you had to kill her someday, at least let us do this for the good of the SkyWing tribe, Your Majesty. You know the tribe will get antsy if they don't see a proper imprisonment of an illegal challenger. And, it's my duty to put evildoers in jail. " Wildfire said politely.

"This is true. But, I do believe this suspected murder was a complete accident and a stroke of luck on my behalf."

"It could have been she had dirt with some other dragons. This information could protect you, Your Majesty. From any other revenge plans this suppose murderer might have, you could never know." Wildfire nodded.

The Queen narrowed her eyes, probably thinking to herself on all the ways this plan could go horribly wrong for the dragons.

"So.. You're expecting me to let you stay here?" Amaranth flicked her tail, back and forth.

"Well, maybe not stay here. But somewhat.. Near the palace. Staying here would be convenient, though."

"How can I trust you?" Amaranth's tone was a tad sassy.

"You know if they do anything wrong you have all the SkyWing guards to kill us. Please, Your Majesty. If we do anything wrong, we die."

"Okay, fine, but a step out of line and it's the dungeons, you're getting the best of my mercy. I do believe we have quite a few rooms. For guests...Hmmm, as long as, this is for my protection. The kingdom is already is shaken with panic and anxiety of the chance of a second murder. And, we really don't need to lose another queen… And, about those rooms I mention, Valley will escort you there."

Illusion wasn't really listening to the conversation from there. She was more focused on a conversation between a couple of guards near one of the doors.

"Have you heard about the fire demon? I heard they're locked in the deepest dungeons, now. Thank three moons."

"Of course I have! Everyone has. Rumor has it that they were suppose to be in the royal guardsmen, like the other one, because we all know Ebony was a lunatic to let fire-scales into the royal guardsmen. Natural or not, a fire-scales should be killed at birth. It's traditional law right?"

"I could agree to that, Rise. Thank the sky, Amaranth is going to bring back that law."

The rest of the conversation was unheard, since Vally returned, and Illusion was politely whisked out of the room by Valley and a couple of guards.

 _Fire demon? What a strange 'name'.. Hopefully we don't encounter this dragon.. They sound dangerous. And_ fiery _._

Illusion was guided to a room, and was quickly shoved in by a guard, even before the door closed behind her. The room was fine, with golden pillars stretching up to the high ceiling and a large bed embedded with sapphires at the sides, silk laying down over it. The silk was a pale lavender, and most of the gems in the room were light red, or bright blue, or pale green. There was also a desk at the side, made of an unnamable amount of different woods. There was also a tall shelf of scrolls.

 _Hmm.. almost as if this room was made for me._

The NightWing curiously stepped over to the shelf, poking her claws between the many scrolls to look at the titles. Biographies, diaries, stories, you name it. But, just as Illusion was done settling in and about to borrow into a story of which she had never read, a small orange head poked in.

"So- um.." the SkyWing mumbled nervously, as if they were in front of a huge crowd and had stage-fright, "T-the Queen has summoned you and your… group.. to dinner. Please come with me so I can guide you to the palace dinner room."

Illusion thought for a moment, before obediently going over, and started to follow the SkyWing. They arrived in a huge room, with many crystal chandeliers hanging down low, and plates that had the most intricate designs a dragon could see. The rest of the Winglet had seemed to already arrived. Odd enough, but Polar and Wildfire seemed to have returned to normal, being that Wildfire did not have a chair and the floor under him was scorched, and the chair Polar was in was just practically a non-melting ice statue. Beryl also sat next to the queen, keeping her head down with a embarrassed, but guilty expression.

"Ah, finally, all of my guests have arrived." The queen smiled. There was also a scatter of other dragons around, and Illusion took the guess that they were either other princess', some of the most highly achieved guards, and other important SkyWings.

Illusion politely sat down, resting her talons down. Almost immediately, multiple servants rushed out of an almost invisible door, which blended in with the fine gold and wood wall. The servants were small and quick, each holding a plate of mouth watering food. For Illusion, they laid down a rotten half of a llama. She looked with a confused look at the servant, and they hastily politely whispered in her ear,

"NightWings prefer their food rotten? Or at least most.."

Illusion smacked her face with her talon. She knew that most NightWings just used bacteria to kill them, and come back when they are decaying and rotting. She never got that, but it was.. bearable.. she guessed. She gently took a leg of the llama and crunched down.

The meal seemed to pass quickly. Polar was the last to finish, poking the last remaining pieces of flesh on the completely iced over penguin they served her.

"So...Have you lovely dragonets met my sister and my daughter, yet?"

Only the Winglet shook their heads. As if in que, a tiny rose red dragonet poke their head from under the table, with a big grin.

"That's me! Princess Dawn, bow down to my scary-ness! Rawrrr!" Dawn squeaked, running out from under the table and uneasily flapping about.

"Sister, can you calm down my precious monkey of a child, Dawn is being quite active, yes? I hope you don't mind, Siskin."

"Ah, not at all, it's my job…" said a dark red SkyWing, in a honeyed voice, jewelry clattering as she got up from her seat, she muttered under her breath while correcting her jewelry back in place, " _If I wasn't caring for this ball of fluff for a brain, I would be dead like mother_."

Dawn sung as she bolted out of the dining hall, her pale orange wings flaring about as her singing echoed into the rest of the palace. Siskin quickly bowed to Amaranth and chased after the dragonet.

"Ah, aren't dragonets the greatest of treasures? My Dawn can get really hyperactive after her meals. She tends to wander the expansive palace, so I kept my sister alive to take care of my precious Dawn."

Illusion shivered a bit, the thought of keeping your life at the mercy of taking care of a dragonet was bone-chilling.

"Um- Excuse me, Qu- I mean Your Majesty, but I have a question," Pink-Sand spoke up, but she stumbled over these words.

"Yes, dear?" Amaranth replied.

"I thought Beryl enchanted Polar and Wildfire's scales to-"

"Oh, I had a word with Beryl while setting up for dinner. I told her to not grant any spells without certain permission from Yours Truly. I told her to get rid of the spell." She cut off Pink-Sand with the flick of her talon and quickly glancing at Beryl, who shrunk down in her seat with embarrassment.

"O-oh. Okay, thank you for the reply," Pink-Sand said in a polite tone.

"Well, it's been very nice to know you all better! Even, if there wasn't much talking, it seems I know you all so well. It would be grand if you could get your rest for your 'clue-finding'! Yes, please go back to your rooms."

Illusion glanced around before getting up, and her eyes met Berry's, and his gaze said ' _Meet me later.'_. He seemed to look at everyone else with that look before they all got up to leave.

* * *

It's the dead of night. Somehow, she knew that it was the time for her to meet Berry. She could read that gaze as well as him speaking. She slowly got up from her bed, picking up her talons to slowly creep out the room. It was dark in the hall, but she knew guards were scattered around. But, luckily she was a NightWing, and she could easily blend into the shadows. She ducked into the darkest corners she could find and slowly crept to where she had seen Berry go into the day before. A mahogany door was right beside her- it was the place. She opened the door and crept in. She was surprised by the fact that the whole Winglet was already there, even Wildfire, who glowed like a candle in the dark.

"Ah! Illusion's here! Now, let's discuss my plan." Berry grinned.

"Hm..?" hummed Illusion as she sat down.

"Okay, so I was thinking! How will we get anything done by simply sitting here? I say we investigate!"

"It's the best plan we have. Not that we have any others," said Labradorite with a sigh.

Illusion groaned, "We're going to die. Oh whatever… we don't have anything else. What is your plan?"

"Well, I was thinking we could explore Ebony's old room! There could be some useful clues, in case she had any beef with someone else written in a journal or something."

"Good point," said Pink-Sand.

"I just want to move on. I can't stand another night of constant puking because of a rotten corpse of a dinner," muttered Illusion.

"This sounds cool! And fun!" cried Skyfall cheerfully.

"Oh, yay. Fun. Running to kill ourselves again." hissed Polar.

"Anything to avenge my queen.." sighed Wildfire.

"Okay, if I have to attend one more fancy dinner party, I'm going to jump off a cliff," muttered Dragonfly.

"Okay! Great! It's settled!" Berry said happily.

"I patrolled these hallways. I know where her bedroom is," Wildfire said quietly.

And, so, they slowly slink over the marble floor, out into the carpet of the hallway. They skulk through the dark shadows, right to Ebony's door, and luckily no guard had spotted Wildfire's glow, or Polar's menacing ice trail (Oddly enough). They opened it, and it eerily made a creaking sound. They hurried in silently, Wildfire and Polar going last, into the room.

The room was large and a tad dusty, and was mostly a dark purple theme. There was a few locks on the cabinets and some chests, which Wildfire and Polar rushed to burn them and freeze them off. Illusion searched through cabinets.. just files and papers. But something wasn't quite right.

"Hey, guys. I found something."

She felt this feeling again as soon as Polar announced she had found a diary in one of the highest locked cabinets. But, just as Berry flew up to get,

"What are you doing in grandma's room?" asked a sleepy Princess Dawn, who was passing by. Illusion froze in place. They forgot to close the door. If, Dawn was up, that meant,

"Dawn deary, why are you up, was it the crickets again? Also, who you talking too…. " called Siskin, and as she strolled up to Dawn, she and the Winglet met eye to eye, exchanging glances, a wicked smiled etched onto her snout.

"Oh...oh ho ho…. _You know Ebony's room is off-limits_. GUARDS!"

In a flash, dozen or so, SkyWing guards seemly unnaturally showed up, and out of all the guard, Illusion recognized one, he was a battle-scarred, whip-thin leering dull red dragon, and in his talons, a set of diamond encrusted chains.

"Condor, what's that?" Wildfire shakily said.

"Haven't you heard? It's Queen Amaranth gift to you."

Condor lunged into the air, swiftly dodging Wildfire as he also flew up, and Condor somehow got the chains to latch onto Wildfire's tail, and after a couple flights around, Wildfire was tied up, and the chains didn't melt. Soonly , the rest of the guards hastily captured and chained the Winglet, Polar being the last, with the guards trying to avoid her touch as she swung her tail around, until they finally lassoed her snout and tail, they dragged her down to the ground. They struggled against the tightening grip of metal, as they were dragged out of the room. Queen Amaranth standing there, with a disappointed look.

"Throw them in the deepest dungeons…. I don't want to look at their disgusting faces anymore."

All that, right before they were about to get even the slightest clue.

* * *

 **Author's Note- Will they ever even get a clue?**


	8. Chapter 7

**Author's Note- Out from the stone, and making a roll, Jade Winglet here! Chapter 7?! That means we went through the whole Winglet POVs for the first time!**

 **So, if you wondering what tribes are these dragons are/ the order of the POVs, then here!**

 **SeaWing- Pink-Sand**

 **IceWing- Polar**

 **RainWing- Prince Berry**

 **MudWing- Dragonfly**

 **SkyWing- Skyfall**

 **NightWing- Illusion**

 **SandWing- Labradorite**

 **(Side Note- Labradorite is agender, so they use the pronouns; they/them)**

* * *

- **Chapter Seven** -

 **-Labradorite's POV-**

It's has only been a few days since they left the school, but they had been caught. Some heroes they were turning out to be.

Labradorite was roughly thrown into a ominous stone cell with the rest of her Winglet.

"Great, we are in jail now! Ugh, I highly warned you all to not go through a dead queen's room, but no, just we had too!" Illusion huffed, sitting on the floor.

"Well, speak up next time, it's not like you have a voice or anything." Dragonfly groaned, padding around, and feeling the walls. The sound of eerie crying started, echoing through the walls.

In the corner was the dragon crying, and they suddenly looked up, shock showing in their light blue eyes. The dragon immediately started screaming at them.

"RUN! RUN FROM ME! YOU HAVE A LIMITED AMOUNT OF TIME! SAVE YOURSELVES… MY SANITY- I ONLY HAVE A FEW MINUTES.." they screeched loudly.

Labradorite, Pink-Sand, Skyfall, and Illusion slowly backed away. Labradorite saw Polar snarling at the dragon. When suddenly, the fearful look in the dragon's eyes faded away, and they rose up, snarling, only a bitterness replaced that fear. Labradorite watched, speechless, as they tried to lash at Wildfire. Polar leapt at the dragon, slamming them into the wall.

 _Wait… another dragon Polar's scales can touch. Another fire-scales! How many fire-scales are in this kingdom?!_

The whole thing was happening so fast. The dragon and Polar started to claw at each other, their roars echoing through the cave. Blood dripped from both of the dragons, both pale blue and scarlet red. Polar slammed her claws into the dragon's muzzle, and the dragon then kicked her in the stomach. Pink-Sand was panicking. Berry was cowering in a corner. Skyfall was just sitting, rocking back in forth in fear, Wildfire trying to help Polar, but Polar had the dragon in a corner so it was really hard to get to them, basically, everyone was in panic, and the SandWing just stood there, frozen with confusion and fear. A screech was heard from the dragon as Polar slammed her jaws shut around their upper neck, and they started kicking her off, making her get sent back a few feet. The screeches from the SkyWing were un-dragon-like. Polar hit the dragon in the eyes with her dangerously thin tail, making sear marks appear. The dragon lunged at Polar, pinning her down and raking their hind claws down her stomach. Polar pulled up her neck and snatched one of the dragon's shoulders in her teeth. She slit her serrated claws through their tail. After that, they both roared, rising to their hind legs and sending slashing claws at the other dragon. Polar slammed her tail into the two legs the SkyWing was standing on, and the pain made the dragon stumble back and fall back. Polar took the chance and lept at the SkyWing, slamming her claw around the dragons throat. When, suddenly, the eyes on the dragon turned wide with fear.. Like they had been a few minutes ago,

"P-please! The pain.. My fault.. Cursed by… SandWing.." they choked out before their eyes turned viciously savage again.

The dragon flailed furiously, sending claws at Polar, but Polar held the male down firmly, her serrated claws securely wrapped around the dragon's throat. Just when the dragon sent a furiously slash at her throat, she smashed the dragon's head into the stone wall, and did the same a few more times, till the dragon passed out. Polar fell back, covered in pale blue blood. But the ground was also littered in fierce red blood. Polar stumbled back, nearly bumping into a Dragonfly.

"What.. Just.. Happened..!" cried Pink-Sand.

"Are you okay?" asked Skyfall.

"DOES IT LOOK LIKE IT!" Polar roared, sending a few drops of the pale blood from her muzzle.

Labradorite just watched, quite speechless.

Most dragons in the room were speechless as Polar shrank down, blood puddling around her. Wildfire dodged around the other dragons, over to the nearly unconscious Polar. He brushed his talon over her wounds.

"She's going to bleed out if we don't get help." Wildfire murmured.

"And how are we supposed to get help?" hissed Berry.

"Did anyone else catch those words that SkyWing said before he fainted?" Labradorite spoke up.

Berry and Illusion nodded.

"He said he was cursed by a SandWing.." choked out Polar in a whisper.

"We should probably be happy that spell Beryl put on Polar and me is gone.. Or else we Polar wouldn't be able to defend and.." his voice trailed off.

"Thank yous later, panicking now. Polar is _dying_ ," said Dragonfly quickly.

"So apparently you care," Polar coughed out.

"I don't want dragons to die."

"Hey, um, so guys, that weird SkyWing that randomly attacked us is dying too. Should we try and help them? After all, they said they were cursed.." Skyfall said, biting her lip.

 _This was so fast. All at once.. Invited to a fancy play, Queen gets murdered, Jade Mountain, to the Sky Kingdom, party with the new Queen, close to finding clues, dungeons, mysterious possibly cursed SkyWing attacks Polar, and now both of them are nearly dead.. It's happening so fast. I had a normal SandWing life before this… At least, I was useful…._

"We'll see.." said Berry slowly.

Labradorite had started to cringe at the ugly wounds on the two dragon's bodies, and the disturbing amount of blood leaking from them. Labradorite caught Pink-Sand clenching her talons, and there was an awkward silence.

"S-" Polar's hoarse whisper was cut off by Wildfire.

"You can't talk- It'll only waste energy."

Labradorite caught Wildfire sigh and look carefully at Polar, as if some kind of mutant eagle would swoop down and take her. She started wondering why he was so protective of Polar.

"I should have helped her," he hissed under his breath ruefully.

Skyfall stumbled over to Labradorite and sat next to them, and Skyfall shut her eyes in fear.

Polar's breaths were becoming more raspy and uncommon by the minute. Panic was starting to light up again between the dragons,

"What are we going to do?!" cried Pink-Sand.

"I don't want to be alone, again! It-it's terrible!" hissed Wildfire, clenching his talons.

Out of no-where, there was a yell. Labradorite couldn't make out the words. They all looked at the wall where the yell was heard from, when a crack split through the air. The chunk of the wall they were looking at exploded in smoke and loud noises. Smoke filled the cave, causing the dragons to cough, some groaned in pain as small debris had scrape their scales. When the smoke cleared, a small SkyWing with extinguished sickly pale red and gold-orange scales, with wings colored like a dying fire, and a silver choker around their neck.

The dragon screeched, jumping back and crying out,

"Who are you! Where is my brother?" She coiled back in fright, but her gaze remained confident.

"We have the same question!" snarled Wildfire.

"Why is there blood everywhere? Is that my BROTHER'S BLOOD? Did he attack you? What happened? Why- Oh my three moons, your IceWing friend is going to die! WHAT HAPPENED?!" The SkyWing piled her questions over and over down on them, in a hoarse voice.

"Is that beast of a SkyWing your brother?! If so, YES. And our 'IceWing friend' just fought off your psychotic brother. 'Case you didn't see, he's right THERE!" Dragonfly roared.

"Wait, she fought him off? How-" her gaze landed on her unconscious brother, "Oh no.. they're both going to die! CAN THAT IDIOTIC BRAIN-TWISTED SANDWING ANIMUS PLEASE DIE IN A FIRE," she snarled. "But really, that IceWing would of been burnt to ashes.."

"She can touch him simply because she is the polar opposite of your brother. A weird thing called a 'freeze-scales.' No other questions need to be answered right now, dragons are DYING," hissed Berry.

"Can we please get out NOW?" spat Dragonfly.

"Yes- of course we ARE. But how is my brother going to get out? Also, introductions later," the dragon muttered quickly.

They all looked at the dragon. Labradorite was trying to make up some kind of plan in their mind, to no luck.

 _We would need Polar, right? I don't know.._

The sound of clattering of talons on the stone floor echoed through the hall, the sound of a key and an iron door cracking open, and a small gasp, it was Beryl, but….more bruised?

"What are YOU doing here!?" snarled Dragonfly.

"Queen Amaranth commanded me to come down to check, .. so I came to see what was happening.. No guards bothered.. And here I am…..There is a huge hole in the side of the dungeon, now." Beryl shifted uncomfortably, "Uh.. looks like you guys are in a pickle.."

"You think?" Wildfire hissed.

"Well- uh.. Do you need help? Oh the three moons I shouldn't be doing this.." Beryl sucked in a breath in shame.

"Of course we need help!" groaned Dragonfly with a heavy matter-of-fact tone mixed with a 'hurry-up-we-don't-have-much-time' tone.

"I-I could help you guys." Beryl ground her teeth.

"Please do that quickly!" cried Pink-Sand.

"O-oh.. Okay.." Beryl stuttered.

Beryl picked up a moss-covered stone that had been blown away in the explosion. This whole time the apparent sister of the crazy SkyWing was standing in confusion and silence. Beryl hastily muttered to the stone,

"I enchant this stone to heal any physical wound on contact.." Beryl fumbled with the stone in her shaking talons as she muttered this.

Dragonfly grabbed it from Beryl's talons as Beryl backed away, tossing it to Wildfire. He started running it over Polar's wounds. They quickly closed up, without a sign they were there.

"Don't forget my brother!" snarled the female SkyWing, coughing after.

"How can we trust him?" Berry questioned.

They all stared at Beryl, with mixed emotions, Beryl sighed sadly, "If, it means you all don't die...then...I can remove it-"

"DO THAT!" cried the female with sadness and fury in her voice, "He shouldn't have been enchanted anyway!" she shook Beryl forcefully,

"Well.. um.."

"PLEASE!"

"O-okay.. Oh my.. Her Majesty i-is going to punish me again.." Beryl looked down, at her now bleeding scales, before going over to the insane SkyWing, "I enchant Illumine to lose all of my PREVIOUS spells on him… Any future enchantments will work..."

Labradorite glanced over to see that Wildfire was nearly done healing Polar's wounds, and she was now starting to groan in slight confusion. He finally put it over the last gash and waited patiently for her to be ready to use the stone on the SkyWing. Illumine, apparently.

Finally Polar rose to her feet sharply, her face in a furious snarl. She lashed her tail. "What HAPPENED?!" she demanded, lashing her tail again.

"You got knocked out… I guess… Beryl enchanted a stone to heal you," Dragonfly blurted.

"She enchanted something to do to me? HAVEN'T YOU HEARD THAT I DON'T TRUST ANIMUS MAGIC?" Polar roared.

"I see that...but you could've of die," Beryl said shyly.

"Don't use your demon magic on me again, freak."

Labradorite glanced at Beryl's eyes, they were slightly welling up with tears.

 _Poor thing…_

"Well, anyway, my brother over there-" the female SkyWing was cut off by Polar.

"Your brother?! Your brother is disgusting! Who even ARE YOU!"

"Don't say that about my brother! I'm Cinder. Now PLEASE take that stone and HEAL THEM!" Cinder snarled, then coughed sickly again.

"They are insane!"

"They were enchanted by Beryl! I heard that you were the only one that could actually fight him!"

Beryl shrank away into a dark corner.

"FINE! But if they act insane I'll kill you, which'll be insanely easy, AND your crazy, murderous brother!" Polar hissed angrily.

Polar stood up in a rueful manner, hissing under her breath. She snatched the stone from Wildfire's talons, probably only guessing that that was it, and stalked over to the knocked out, dying SkyWing.

"Hurry up!" Cinder said in a rushful way.

"Shut up! You're lucky I'm even doing this, sky-creeper!" Polar hissed.

"His name is Illumine!" Cinder huffed.

Polar hastily brushed the stone on the wounds, and they immediately closed up, without a trace. When she finished, the SkyWing's eyes shot open, and they quickly backed away, the way they were looking at the group was in pure shock. Labradorite quickly compared Wildfire and Illumine. Wildfire's scales looked like...if they were about to burst into flames, and with the amount of smoke that fumed out, while Illumine's scales were more natural looking, with a faint trail of smoke.

"Why can't I feel the curse? WHY?! I always had that crave in my talons.. WHAT-" Cinder's brother cried in confusion.

"I reversed the curse," Beryl said calmly, but sleeking back to her corner.

The SkyWing froze, his gaze was scared, nothing like the look in his eyes that Labradorite had seen before he was knocked out.

"Okay, I'm confused!" he whispered, "Also, how in the heck can you touch me, IceWing-That-I-Don't-Know-Except-For-I-Remember-You-Fighting-Me? Did you make it so I am no longer a firescales-"

"If you were no longer a firescales, you'd be dead as an ice sculpture. Literally," Polar snarled.

"Wait, what-"

"You'll know later." Polar rolled her eyes, throwing the stone at the wall.

She threw the stone so hard, probably in confusion and anger, it shattered. Not that it was a very.. thick stone in the first place.

"Hey! What if we need it for later?" Beryl cried.

"GOOD. I HOPE YOU AND ALL OF YOUR KIND BURN." Polar screeched, with that icy cold voice that could intimidate any dragon, Beryl's eyes dripped with tears, she hurried out of her corner and trotted outside, which deserve a few harsh glances at Polar.

"I'm confused, what now?" Pink-Sand whispered to the rest of the winglet.

"Me too," replied Berry.

They stood their in silence, watching the whole scene play out.

"-Three moons you're all idiots!" Polar cut off Illumine as he was talking, "We're still in the jail cell. Guards will find us!"

"You should just go…. I'll say nothing…" Beryl muttered, passing by the hole.

Labradorite shifted their wings and then started shuffling out through the blown out wall. The Winglet, and any other non-different-scales left first, then Illumine and Polar, then Wildfire.

 _All that….and I did nothing…_

* * *

 **Author's Note- If you enjoy this story, then we have something in store for you! Yes, you! If you have Discord, then fill the chats, talk to us, the whole Jade Winglet!**

 **/bPpcds**


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